https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/18/23799266/reddit-app-icons-ugly
The best icons are behind a Reddit Premium paywall.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
This is the kind of shit that’d have driven me nuts a few months ago. Now? It’s just hilarious how brazen they are.
Lmao I thought the pixelated 8-bit one must have been one of the niche premium ones (before reading the article)
Nope, they’re making it the default
Will be fascinating to see the effect of the exodus long term. Currently, the best data we have is that reddit traffic is down between 5-10%. Engagement length is down as well, to its lowest level in 3 years. Of course, traffic is a trailing indicator. I have to assume content will suffer dramatically as the heavy Reddit users (the contributors and mods) are pissed of and leaving. Probably won't know for another few months but everybody should come over to Lemmy!
It's becoming harder and harder to understand Reddit's actions. What are they trying to achieve with this???
They aren't benefitting corporate customers in detriment of the users, so it's hard to claim enshittification. In another context, this icon restriction would encourage users to buy premium, but they went out of their way to piss off the most engaged parts of the userbase (the ones who'd likely buy premium to begin with). And all those changes actually increase the risk associated with Reddit in the short term, so potential IPO buyers would value the brand lower because of that, not higher.
The only way to explain this is if someone is actively trying to wreck pre-IPO Reddit, so it sells dirty cheap.
I'm just toying with the idea, don't trust it, but what if Musk is the one doing it, by greasing Huffman's hands, for an eventual Twitter-Reddit merge?
I don't use reddit anymore, but anyone on Android can patch the reddit app to get the icons and remove ads via revanced, idk who would want to go on reddit anyways, but in case you need to.
Wait, why are there "locked icons" but not all of the non-default ones, if you need Reddit Premium to change icons in the first place according to the bottom of the screenshot? Shouldn't the lock icon be on all of them except the default if you can't switch?